Kindergarten  Magazine,  April,  1901 


Volume  XIII  April,  1901  Number  8 

Editors   in   charge:     Amalie   Hofer,  Nina  C.  Vandewalker,  Marl   Ruef   Hofer,   Bertha 
Johnston. 

Beginning  a  new  Series,  known  to  its  publishers  as,  The  Twentieth  Century  Series. 

Pertaining  to  all  that  concerns  the  democratic  in  education,  as  heretofore. 

Published  by  its  owners,  the  newly  organized  Kindergarten  Magazine  Co.,  editorial  and 
publishing  offices  being  in  the  Fine  Arts  Building,  203  Michigan  Ave.,  Chicago. 

Issued  monthly  from  September  to  June  inclusive,  and  entered  at  the  Chicago  Postoffice 
as  second  class  matter.    Copyright  1901. 

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KINDERGARTEN  MAGAZINE  CO.,  Fine  Arts  Building,  Chicago. 

CONTENTS  OF  APRIL  NUMBER. 

PAGE 

Frontispiece — Field  Museum,  Jackson  Park 

Tolstoi's  School  for  Children .    Evelyn  H.  Walker  411 

German  Building,  Jackson  Park,  Chicago  (Illustration) 416 

Friedrich  Wilhelm  August  Froebel,  a  Biographical  Study,  Bertha  Johnston  417 

The  Play  Instinct Henry  S.  Curtis,  Ph.  D.  424 

Anna  E.  Bryan — In  Memoriam 433 

Manual  Training,  Sloyd  and  Woodwork 442 

Juvenile  Delinquency  and  Dependency 448 

I.  K.  U.  Program 454 

The  Meeting  of  the  Ways 456 

Program  Suggestions ...  456 

Aesthetics  for  the  Children 458 

Awakening  Processes  in  the  Indian  Kindergarten 459 

Does  the  Imagination  Need  Stimulation 460 

Are  you  at  Fault -  .     461 

One  Book  and  Some  Others 463 

Notes  from  the  Educational  Field 467 


'MuslG  for  1116  Gtilld  World"  ''.r.i'^Z  °^™"Jf '""?  ^f  "^^'"^""'  T" 

piled  by  Man  R.  Hofer.    The  selections  are  taken 


from  the  great  music  masters  as  well  as  the  modern  composers  for  children.  They  make 
pictures  of  interest  to  the  children,  while  at  the  same  time  they  maintain  musical  ideals.  An 
interpreted  description  accompanies  the  selections  which  are  grouped  as  follows:  The  morn- 
ing group,  the  nature  group,  the  industrial  group.  The  selections  are  headed  by  an  appro- 
priate poetical  quotation.  "Music  for  the  Child  World"  is  being  used  in  the  public  kinder- 
gartens throughout  the  country.  Regular  price  $1.25;  to  present  subscribers  of  the  Kinder- 
garten Magazine  the  price  is  $1.00.  With  a  subscription  to  the  Kindergarten  Mag. 
AziNE  ($2.00),  $2.60.    Address  KINDERGARTEN  MAGAZINE  CO.,  Chicago. 


6U  -i^fcY 


JUVENILE  DELINQUENCY  AND  DEPENDENCY. 

THE  February  issue  of  the  Commons  is  devoted  to  results  of 
an  inquiry  into  Juvenile  Delinquency  and  Dependency  in 
Chicago,  and  the  Juvenile  Court  Law,  which  handles  cases 
coming  under  the  above  heads.  Miss  Edith  Clarke,  a  resi- 
dent of  the  Chicago  Commons,  gives  an  excellent  report  made  after 
several  months'  careful  and  thoughtful  investigation  of  the  subject. 
Richard  S.  Tuthill,  Judge  of  the  Court,  tells  how  the  law  is  working, 
and  two  of  the  Probation  Officers,  T.  D.  Hurley  and  Martha  O.  Fal- 
coner, also  write  on  different  aspects  of  the  same  subject. 

When  the  Illinois  Congress  of  Mothers  met  for  the  first  time  last 
spring,  it  gave  one  full  evening  to  addresses  upon  this  law,  its  impor- 
tance and  efficiency.  There  are  surely  few  signs  more  hopeful  for  the 
future  of  the  coming  generations  than  are  indicated  by  such  wide- 
spread interest  in  all  that  tends  toward  the  preservation  and  nurture 
of  that  divine  spark  which  is  inherent  in  all  children.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that  those  who  have  been  largely  instrumental  in  introducing 
this  law  are  stanch  upholders  of  the  kindergarten.  They  recognize 
the  latent  divinity  that  is  in  the  child  and  that  is  seldom  entirely 
obliterated  even  after  years  spent  amid  evil  influences. 

Miss  Clarke  first  gives  a  brief  description  of  the  youthful  criminal's 
chances,  or  rather  lack  of  chances,  before  the  passage  of  this  bill. 
Children  nine  and  ten  years  old  were,  less  than  three  years  ago,  tried 
and  convicted  as  were  men  of  forty.  Those  whose  crime  was  per- 
haps a  first  offiense  were  sent  to  mingle  with  hardened  criminals  of 
the  lowest  order,  and  when  the  sentence  had  been  served  and  the 
small  sinner  was  once  more  free,  there  was  no  one  to  befriend  the 
child,  to  "point  to  other  worlds  and  lead  the  way."  Small  wonder 
that  the  young  lawbreaker  continued  to  find  his  chief  joy  in  breaking 
more  laws.  Are  we  not  all  more  or  less  inclined  to  conform  to  the 
conventions  of  that  society  in  which  we  chance  to  move  ? 

The  dependent  children  whose  parents  are  unable  or  unwilling  to 
properly  care  for  them  were  at  this  time  not  much  better  off.  They, 
too,  were  in  some  cases  sent  to  the  Bridewell ;  in  others  to  the  Poor- 
House.  Here  they  grew  up  in  an  unnatural  atmosphere  of  sickness, 
feebleness  and  death.     It  is  appalling  to  think  that  such  conditions 


JUVENILE  DELINQUENCY  AND  DEPENDENCY.  449 

can  exist  in  a  community  supposedly  civilized.  Fortunately  for  the 
credit  of  human  nature  and  the  welfare  of  the  commonwealth,  some 
friends  of  childhood  finally  made  their  voices  heard.  Several  dif- 
ferent agencies  were  instrumental  in  creating  a  public  sentiment  that 
demanded  different  treatment  for  the  child  culprit. 

In  this  connection  we  quote  from  the  Commons  as  follows  : 

Among  those  who  self-sacrificingly  labored  to  inaugurate  the  better  era  now 
begun,  the  late  Mrs.  Alzina  P.  Stevens  (a  woman  of  unflinching  fidelity  to  the 
working  class  and  of  great  influence  in  labor  organizations)  had  so  much  to  do 
with  bettering  the  conditions  of  child-life  in  Chicago,  and  her  recent  death  was 
so  great  a  loss  that  it  seems  fit  to  give  here  a  brief  account  of  her  remark- 
able life. 

She  was  born  in  Parsonville,  Me.,  May  27,  1849.  At  the  age  lof  twelve 
years  she  entered  upon  work  in  a  factory;  and  when  she  was  eighteen  years 
old  she  learned  the  printer's  trade  in  Chicago,  where,  in  1877,  she  organized 
the  Working  Women's  Union,  No.  i,  and  was  its  first  president.  After- 
wards she  moved  to  Toledo,  where  she  was  engaged  in  editorial  work  on  a 
Toledo  daily.  There  she  helped  to  organize  a  branch  of  Knights  of  Labor, 
called  the  Joan  of  Arc  Assembly  of  the  Knights  of  Labor.  In  1892  sh« 
returned  to  Chicago,  and  at  the  World's  Fair  Labor  Congress  she  was  on  the 
Women's  Auxiliary  Committee. 

She  was  appointed  Assistant  Factory  Inspector  in  1893  by  Governor  Alt- 
geld,  and  partly  through  her  efl^orts  the  law  of  1897  extending  the  child  labor 
provisions  was  enacted. 

She  did  much  toward  the  establishment  of  the  Juvenile  Court  Law  in  1899 
and  also  of  the  Parental  School  Law.  The  Juvenile  Court  appointed  her  its 
first  Probation  Officer  and  her  fidelity  to  that  work  was  admirable.  When 
she  died  she  had  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  boys  under  her  supervision  from 
that  Court.  Her  faithful  work  is  deeply  missed.  She  was  a  resident  of  Hull 
House  for  a  few  years  before  her  death. 

Very  different  associations  had  a  hand  in  the  new  movement  for  the  chil- 
dren. The  Labor  Unions  stirred  up  a  feeling  against  child-labor  and  called  the 
attention  of  the  public  to  the  conditions  of  children  in  factories  and  other 
business  places.  The  State  Conference  of  Charities,  of  1898,  devoted  its 
entire  time  to  the  subject  of  juvenile  delinquency  and  dependency.  The  State 
Federation  of  Women's  Clubs  and  many  of  the  local  Women's  Clubs  discussed 
it.  The  Chicago  Bar  Association  adopted  a  unanimous  resolution  in  favor  of 
suitable  legislation  and  appointed  a  committee  to  draft  a  bill. 

These  efiforts  were  successful  in  bringing  into  operation  within  the  last 
three  or  four  years  four  laws,  the  Child  Labor,  Compulsory  Education, 
Juvenile  Court  and  Parental  School  Laws. 

The  Juvenile  Court  of  Chicago  was  established  in  July,  1899.  Any 
reputable  resident  of  the  County,  most  often  a  policeman  or  school 
teacher,  may  file  with  the  Clerk  of  the  Court  a  petition  naming  a  cer- 
tain child  as  delinquent.     A  summons  is  then  sent  to  the  parents  or 


450  KINDERGARTEN    MAGAZINE. 

guardian  requiring-  their  appearance  with  the  child  when  the  Court 
is  next  in  session.  When  a  case  is  called  the  boy  or  boys  concerned 
go  to  the  Judge's  desk,  the  witnesses  standing  behind  them.  The 
proceedings  are  quite  informal,  that  a  boy  may  not  be  frightened 
into  silence  or  falsehood.  The  Judge  talks  with  and  warns  the  boy 
in  a  kind,  fatherly  manner,  and  encourages  him  to  make  a  start  in  the 
right  direction.  The  charges  mostly  brought  against  boys  are  for 
larceny.  If  it  is  the  first  offense,  he  is  allowed  to  go  home,  being 
put  under  the  supervision  of  a  Probation  Officer.  If  it  is  the  second 
ofifense,  or  if  for  any  reason  the  Judge  thinks  it  best,  the  boy  is  sent 
to  the  John  Worthy  School. 

The  Probation  Officer  acts  as  friend  and  counsellor  to  the  child. 
She  sees  him  from  time  to  time,  encourages  him,  assists  and  advises 
him  in  respect  to  home,  school  and  surroundings.  The  Court  is 
advised  by  reports  from  the  Probation  Officer  of  the;  boy's  attend- 
ance at  school  or  his  conduct  in  employment,  if  at  work. 
.  In  the  case  of  dependent  children,  petitions  are  filed  and  summons 
served  much  as  in  the  cases  of  delinquency.  If  it  is  evident  that 
the  parents  are  trying  to  evade  their  parental  responsibilities,  he  puts 
them  in  charge  of  a  Probation  Officer,  but  does  not  take  the  children 
away.  Whenever  he  is  resonably  sure  that  the  little  ones  are  neg- 
lected at  home  or  that  it  would  be  hurting  them  (on  account  of 
immoral  influences)  to  leave  them  with  the  parents  any  longer,  and 
that  there  is  no  suitable  relative  or  friend  to  take  them,  they  are 
declared  dependent  and  are  given  into  the  hands  of  one  of  the  socie- 
ties which  care  for  children.  These  societies  either  have  the  children 
adopted  into  family  homes  or  sent  to  suitable  institutions. 

The  sixteen  months'  experience  of  Chicago  has  proved  that  the 
services  of  a  Probation  Officer  to  be  valuable  must  be  persistent. 
Since,  however,  the  law  makes  no  provision  for  adequate  compensa- 
tion, such  help  must  come  from  outside  sources.  There  are  now 
over  1,500  children  on  probation,  and  since  certain  authorities  con- 
sider that  a  Probation  Officer  should  have  no  more  than  forty 
paroled  to  her  at  one  time,  it  is  readily  seen  that  there  is  something  to 
be  done  in  the  way  of  increasing  the  force.  The  Mayor  has  helped  in 
this  matter  at  the  request  of  those  interested  in  the  workings  of  the 
Court  by  detailing  a  number  fatherly  men  from  the  police  force,  who, 
in  citizen's  clothes,  without  baton  or  arms  or  any  other  outward  sign 
of  authority,  act  as  Probation  Officers.  They  have  proved  of  invalu- 
able assistance  in  the  work.     That  the  new  procedure  has  justified 


JUVENILE    DELINQUENCY    AND    DEPENDENCY.  45  I 

itself  is  quite  evident  when  we  learn  that  more  than  85  per  cent  of  the 
children  now  brought  before  the  Court  are  practically  saved,  while 
under  the  old  regime  fully  95  per  cent  of  the  boys  were  lost. 

Speaking  of  the  Juvenile  Court  Law,  before  the  Illinois  Congress 
of  Mothers,  Judge  Tuthill  said : 

"  The  essential  part  of  this  law  is  that  no  child  under  sixteen  years 
of  age  shall  be  charged  with  crime,  or  called  or  treated  as  a  criminal. 

This  wise  and  thoughtful  Judge  fully  realizes  that  the  psycho- 
logical fact  that  "children  are  all  different,  all  children  vary;  they 
vary  as  much  in  their  mental  and  moral  characteristics  as  they  do  in 
their  physical  features ;  and  so  each  child  is  a  study  by  himself,  and 
especially  these  delinquent  and  bad  children.  You  have  got  to  know 
about  their  homes,  about  their  mothers  and  their  fathers  and  their 
uncles  and  their  aunts,  everything  you  can  find  out,  in  order  to  act 
advisedly  in  each  case." 

Here  is  another  thought  he  gave  the  taxpayer  to  ponder  upon : 

"  I  think  if  I  could  have  twenty-five  successful  Probation  Ofiicers, 
we  could  pretty  nearly  turn  our  jail  into  a  warehouse,  for  from  the 
ranks  of  such  children  as  are  brought  into  the  Juvenile  Court  as 
delinquents  'nearly  all  the  criminals  come.'  " 

Again  Judge  Tuthill  says  : 

"  Good  habits  are  of  very  much  slower  growth  than  bad  habits ; 
and  so  when  a  boy  is  really  delinquent  he  ought  to  be  sent  to  a  place 
to  be  taken  care  of  for  two  or  three  years,  or  perhaps  four,  until  good 
habits  have  been  formed,  until  the  old  habits  have  been  forgotten  and 
thrown  aside  and  looked  upon  with  disgust  and  loathing,  just  as  they 
come  to  look  upon  their  foul  clothing  with  which  they  come  into  the 
school." 

The  Honorable  Harvey  B.  Hurd  expresses  his  views  upon  the 
value  of  beginning  early  with  right  influences,  as  follows  : 

"  By  the  proper  looking  after,  instruction,  and  attention  to  the 
family,  there  will  be  less  necessity  of  taking  these  children  away 
from  their  homes  and  putting  them  somewhere  else.  *  *  *  Here  is 
this  underlying  principle  or  thought  in  the  cases  of  delinquents, 
which  is  the  fact  that  they  have  one  hope  above  all  others,  and  that  is 
in  the  kindergarten,  which  lies  at  the  very  foundation  of  this  work. 
*  *  *  In  regard  to  this  work  of  reforming  people,  I  am  reminded  of 
what  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  has  said — that  a  man's  birth 
ought  to  be  ordered  two  or  three  hundred  years  before  it  took  place, 


452  KINDERGARTEN    MAGAZINE. 

SO  that  a  man  could  be  prepared  to  be  born  right.  Yoii  commence 
with  children  in  the  kindergarten  and  you  will  not  have  nearly  so 
many  dependent  children  in  the  courts  nor  in  the  institutions,  nor  in 
tlie  penitentiaries,  nor  in  the  reformatories,  nor  in  any  place  that  we 
call  a  prison.  That  is  the  effect  of  this  work;  and  that  is  the  ulti- 
mate final  thought  of  this  century  on  that  question.  The  kinder- 
garten is  the  place  to  begin." 

In  order  to  successfully  cope  with  a  disease,  whether  of  the  body 
personal  or  the  body  politic,  we  must  understand  the  conditions 
under  which  that  disease  has  flourished.  Miss  Clarke  assigns  several 
causes  leading  to  the  dependency  and  the  delinquency  of  children. 
We  reprint  her  statements  in  full  on  this  subject : 

Weakness  of  the  marriage  tie  is  at  the  bottom  of  a  great  many  cases  of 
dependency.  As  long  as  it  is  an  easy  thing  for  men  to  marry,  become  fathers 
and  then  get  divorced,  only  to  leave  their  families  and  do  the  same  thing  over 
again;  as  long  as  the  sacredness  of  the  family  relations  is  made  light  of,  just 
so  long  will  there  be  hundreds  of  little  children,  in  our  large  cities,  homeless 
and  helpless,  who  will  grow  up  with  no  happy  remembrance  of  home  and  no 
desire  to  have  the  right  kind  of  a  home  when  they  become  fathers  and 
mothers.  With  just  as  great  vigor  as  we  use  to  prevent  smallpox,  philanthropic 
efforts  ought  to  be  directed  toward  the  prevention  of  dependency  caused  by 
this  evil. 

The  root  of  the  difificulty  is  in  our  industrial  organization.  In  the  central 
portions  of  our  large  cities,  it  is  almost  impossible  for  parents  to  have  pleasant 
homes  and  to  bring  up  their  children  well.  It  is  necessary  for  them  to  live  in 
these  places  because  machinery  has  diminished  the  demand  for  country  labor- 
ers. They  work  in  the  large  manufactories ;  and  because  of  the  long  hours 
and  lack  of  money  to  pay  car  fare  they  must  live  near  their  place  of  business. 
Rent  in  that  part  of  the  city  is  very  high  and  consequently  they  must  live  in  a 
crowded  way  and  without  many  of  the  modern  conveniences.  Their  instincts 
of  sociability  lead  many  people  to  seek  work  in  large  cities  and  there  are 
other  motives  that  lead  them  there.  Where  there  are  six  or  seven  families 
in  one  house  and  no  place  for  the  children  to  play  except  in  the  streets  and 
alleys,  when  the  families  are  poor  and  both  father  and  mother  are  away  all 
day  working,  the  conditions  are  not  conducive  to  a  happy  and  prosperous 
home. 

Probably  truancy  has  as  much  as  anything  else  to  do  with  landing  boys  in 
John  Worthy  School.  Very  few  of  the  boys  brought  into  Court  had  a  good 
school  record  as  to  attendance.  Eighteen  per  cent  of  i8o  truants  examined  in 
Massachusetts  had  committed  petty  crimes.  Truancy  in  98  per  cent  of  these 
cases  led  to  vagrancy.  Fourteen  per  cent  of  the  inmates  of  the  reformatories 
of  the  North  Atlantic  States  can  neither  read  nor  write. 

In  spite  of  the  Compulsory  Education  Law  in  Illinois,  out  of  1,500,000  chil- 
dren of  school  age  only  1,000,000  of  them  attend  school.  A  boy  who  runs 
away    from    school    invariably   falls   into   bad   company   and   gets   into   some 


JUVENILE    DELINQUENCY    AND    DEPENDENCY.  453 

trouble.  He  loses  interest  in  his  studies  and  seldom  amounts  to  anything 
unless  something  happens  to  change  his  course.  Often  the  causes  of  truancy 
are  inefficient  teachers,  bad  systems  of  instruction  or  some  physical  defect  in 
the  child.  The  number  of  delinquent  children  will  diminish  in  the  same 
ratio  as  the  number  of  truant  cases  is  lessened. 

The  John  Worthy  School  above  referred  to  is  in  the  same  yard 
as  the  Brideweh,  but  there  is  now  no  association  between  the 
prisoners  and  the  boys.  There  is  an  average  of  200  boys  there  all 
the  time.  As  far  as  class  work  is  concerned  it  is  like  a  regular 
graded  school.  School  is  in  session  from  9  to  12  and  3  to  3  :30.  After 
school  there  is  more  or  less  rough  play  under  insufficient  supervision. 
Some  may  employ  themselves  in  brushmaking,  but  there  is  little 
occupation  planned.  In  this  respect  the  school  is  still  deficient.  In 
the  evening  a  small  library  is  at  the  service  of  the  boys  until  bed- 
time at  8  o'clock. 

The  corresponding  school  for  girls  appears  to  be  better  organized. 
It  is  charmingly  located  and  the  teachers  in  charge  are  competent 
and  refined.  Fewer  girls  are  arrested  than  boys.  The  chief  charge 
against  them  is,  alas !  for  immorality. 

The  valuable  report  of  Miss  Clarke  is  concluded  with  the  follow- 
ing summary: 

The  greatest  results  in  any  reformatory  work  are  of  a  preventive  character. 
Too  much  stress  cannot  be  laid  upon  the  encouragement  and  strengthening  of 
the  home  life  of  a  dependent  or  delinquent  child,  or  upon  helping  the  chil- 
dren when  they  are  very  young  before  they  are  confirmed  in  dishonesty  and 
sin.  While  there  will  always  be  cases  where  it  will  be  absolutely  necessary  to 
remove  children  from  the  care  and  influence  of  unworthy  people,  still  it  is 
true  that  the  greatest  good  can  be  accomplished  through  the  steady  education 
of  the  poorer  classes  about  their  responsibility  to  childhood.  For  this  reason, 
the  probation  system  in  Chicago,  which  I  have  described,  seems  to  me  to  be  a 
step  in  the  right  direction.  If  the  officers  had  more  leisure  they  could  do  a 
wondrous  work  in  this  line. 


I -10 1 


